French documentary about Peter Gabriel demonstrating his new toy - The Fairlight CMI. He also talks about the song The Rythmn of the Heat which used the Fairlight extensively.
This has one of my all time favorite Peter Gabriel quotes: "There's been many great songs which have had really appalling lyrics, but there have been no great songs which have had appalling music."
Rhythm of the Heat is as good as anything he ever did. Superb. I don't like his stuff after 1986, except for soundtracks, but the quality of his early work has earned him an exalted place. He is a genius, even if his muse has faded somewhat. I wish he would live forever.
For some reason, that crazy laugh he does at 2.33 has had a profound effect on me! It just comes out of nowhere. It sort of sums up Gabriel. He's calm, calm, calm and then mental! The animal within. Hahaha
I saw Peter Gabriel at the Music Hall in Houston in 1982. What an absolutely amazing experience. The acoustics in that place were like being in a studio and with a 2,200 seat capacity it was an intimate experience the likes of which I’ve never had since. I still remember everyone singing ‘Biko’ after the show on the way back to the parking garage. www.setlist.fm/setlist/peter-gabriel/1982/houston-music-hall-houston-tx-bd2ed8e.html
It just so happens that the company he co-founded in the 80s to sell Fairlights and Emulators in the UK, became the European distributor for Ensoniq, starting with the Mirage. But that was five years after this was filmed.
In its time this was truly groundbreaking stuff. My friends and I were obsessed with the 'Security' album that came out of this experimentation -- very exciting. Wow! Thanks.
...whilst I think that he has focused his concentration on developing other world music, he inspires me and whenever I am looking for ideas I take out one of his albums. The last temptation of Christ, is truly the work of a genius. What do you think ?
I owned a Fairlight IIx (ex Alan Parsons') in the 1980s and a Series III until 2005 and the Page R/RS sequence page was just far better for basic composition and base structure than any DAW I've used since. With the Series III you could programe a piece of music so quickly with just inputting letters and bar numbers. The stock samples were also beautifully crafted and dynamic.
watched this at the time and got into PG from there pg4 was awesome and well ahead of its time,kate bush got a fairlight shortly after for the dreaming album another awesome albulm of the 80s.............
Uh..sorry dozer, I still happen to get a lot out of Cupid & Psyche '85. So deny me my pleasure? It doesn't sound like much of anything else that came out during the same period, exception: it was mixed on the same SSL boards prevalent at the time. Gartside's breathy (and heterosexual) lyrics were quite different than something ABC would have put out. Human League were much more rough around the edges. Hell, I'm not going to list every 80's band. Who knows what you had been listening to.
...there is nothing 'contrived' about 'World Music.... the West making a concerted effort to show appreciation to traditional and new developments from music from around the world. Gabriel has pioneered Western multi cultural appreciation - whilst Collins has merely exploited it. Hence the reason, why Mr Collins is in tax exile in Switzerland ( great British bloke !!!) and has been sued by virtually all of the jazz musicians who worked tirelessly for him over the last 10 yrs.
PG's soundtrack for the Last Temptation of Christ is brilliant and the style has shown up on other soundtracks and songs... sorry no reference ;) The dense production on the Security release and the lack of cymbals through out the songs did provide a specific feel that has been replicated. I can't comment much on today's pop music... there's none that I really find interesting enough to want to listen too. Though I do hear shades of PG in Radiohead... and bands of this caliber.
I thought UP was a big of dog as well. I wanted lots more and didn't think it was worthy of his previous catalog. PG's affect on music I believe is more related to his abilities to be inventive as we see here with his sampling. Also his production techniques have be copied and many are still used today, pumping an entire mix with your compressor, the gated reverb (yes flogged to death and not heard much now - thx)
It's easy in 2007 to look back at 1982 and poke fun... we'll all do the same to hair styles clothing and dance in 2027 when we look back at today. To minimize the impact of Peter Gabriels solo work and his influence on both popular music composition as well as experimental music is short sighted and niave.
Genesis is a rock group. Scritti was, and IS, a array of things. People stick to what they feel safe with. No offence to them, but i'd go for Scritti first. I'd imagine "nobody" in the "electronica" and "darkwave" Scene talks about them, The two genres a rittled with cookie cutter groups and sounds.
Gabriel is a buttock? How do you know this? I agree that Genesis without Peter is just worthless pop, but even the worst Phil Collins-fronted Genesis music is more memorable that Scritti. Even in the electronica and darkwave scenes nobody talks about them. It's either Depeche or Gabriel.
Scritti Polliti are another lame 80's band forgotten in the ash heap of that period. They never got beyond sounding just like every other cookie cutter synth act from that period. Gabriel, by contrast, has continued to pave the way and influence others to do the same.
An "array of things". Well, let's say that this is so. None of those things are something that could have ever overshadowed the grounds breaking work Gabriel did in pop music at the time of this video. What Scritti did then was poop.
ok now that its dirt cheap to go out sample real things around, you need to go do it. these people were all ahead of their time. listen to what he got out of blowing air into a pipe. priceless original.
Pierre Ripplinger ...and you probably had to buy another one and possibly pay for damage clean-up when the thing inevitable caught fire (you may be aware that that was actually a real thing).
surripere ( '~') Haha no, I never heard of any synth that caught fire. Defective or underperforming power supplies? "Crap, my 100,000 bucks synth is smoking".
@pacific707 No. "Cupid and Psyche" is just gay friendly party music that sounds dated, like so much of the other music of the period which it's indistinguishable from.
The entire Fairlight Library is now available as donation ware for Kontakt 4. 30 disks + extras. Really worth checking out if you got the urge to produce older tracks.
Mi dichiaro sconfitto. Non seguiranno altre repliche. Concertista ed insegnante a 13 anni? Io per pubblicare il primo vinile ho dovuto aspettare i 16: faccio musica (composizione, arrangiamento, basso fretless, chitarra, voce, tastiere, programmazione, fonico di studio) da 30 anni... Se questo è il rispetto che hai per artisti come Gabriel ed lo insegni pure ai tuoi allievi forse era meglio se ti davi alla pesca sportiva. E se suoni come scrivi... Tanti auguri per la tua professione.
Wow. Guess I'll have to put old Peter Gabriel onto the list. Thought he was just another 80s pop act, but this video clearly shows he's a fucking music freak. Thanks a lot for uploading this gem!
80s? He was on his third or fourth career by then. And already a musical genius performing for 20 years. You need to read up a little. In the late 60s and 70s he was in Genesis. One of the most pioneering and experimental bands all the way up into the 90s. Then he had his own solo career from the mid 70s to the 80s that was Filled with world music and lots of avant-garde synthesizers. He’s composed for films and all this other Stuff and has had a completely diversified intensely artistic career. But I think most of the people I know know him as a true artist and visionary I’m not really from that song that was a big pop hit.
@thelurker25 It's a 5 and 1/2 inch floppy disk. It used to be the only medium that we could keep our data on. Back in the early and dark ages of digital audio....
Hello Vasiliki666 -- I agree with you about Peter Gabriel. He's absolutely brilliant. I love his innovative approach to music. I like artists that are bold and unique. Peace2U, Kim
I truly doubt that the Fairlight's "demise" can be attributed to a Korg M1, (sold millions, but a flash in the pan - never used anymore, even in Legacy edition) and the Roland JV1080. The Roland JV1080 is indeed a workhorse in the music studio but doesn't come close to the capabilities of the Fairlight CMI! Two completely different beasts!!!!! Don't get me wrong, I love my 1080, but please, it sounds awful to compare it to an 80's vintage Fairlight....they're totally different!
Perhaps it was a big old 8". I'm going to have to watch this again. You should see the optical disks they used for the Synclavier. They looked just like a Laserdisc (remember them? I still have some Laserdiscs and a very good LD player). I also noticed that they used cartridges in the Fairlight, as well as floppies.
I was incredibly fortunate, as a teenager on the late 80s, to work at Real World Studios....Whilst I took a different path; the words and wisdom of PG stay with me....Especially in my own music....
@larkydozer Complete Bull! Cupid & Psyche '85 is just as incredible to listen to today, as are all of Peter's records, including Security. Scritti set the standard for high-tech New York-based studio-sequenced wizardry. Dave Gamson is a synthesizer god - as well as a hell of a musician, arranger and songwriter.
If you can create a drum pattern that is truly unique and interesting,why is it wrong for someone like a Phil Collins to use various drum machines to make that pattern come alive?!Oh for a Peter-Phil album,just them, all percussion,acoustic and electric!!!
I agree that it's fabulous to see him talk about the process that went into a song like this. I'm torn, though, whether I like the English version or his German version better; guess I'll just have to like them both the same :-)
i remember doing the same kinda thing -- shoe squeaks, water sounds, spinning coins, et al -- with my Ensoniq EPS back in 1990 or so... GOOD TIMES !!!! ..and seeing Pete do it now, in hindsight, really brings it all back for me! (and others too, i imagine..) Guess it's time to go power up my keyboards and remember why i started doing this to begin with!! ^_^
i wish he'd kept what he did on 4.00, the kind of yell. it was amazing and part of the start is cut on the finished song disapointingly. i still love the song, though , it is amazing
PURE CREATIVITY !! the first artist who ever use the failight the second was jean michel jarre ( juste because it was deliver to peter gabriel first !). now if lisa gerrard was in the video then you would have a kind of dead can dance type of music ! thank for this video !
i'd still be superhappy having a fairlight and that screen. the sampling seemed very fast. i dont get why theres not more vstsamplers that actually sample - not just load samples.
I love Peter's music. Was this at his recordings for the fourth album? And i wonder why his eyes always looked like he was a depressive insomniac back then.
![The Fairlight CMI история создания и банкротство [переведено на русский]](/img/n.gif)
The TV smash would’ve been easier if you would’ve used ... your sledgehammer!
LOL!!!!! GOOOOOD ONE ;-) I see what you did there......
This dude was way ahead of his time, a true pioneer.
is that what pete yawns when he wakes up in the morning ,,aaaahhhhhhhhhheeeeeeoooooooooo >:-)
Yep, and the drums kick in from afar through the dawn chorus :-)
Mummy!!!
"So i pull out my phallic symbol here"....he's hillarious 3:04
Kate Bush's "Toy" as well. I understand now how she got all those amazing, unique vocal sounds.
This has one of my all time favorite Peter Gabriel quotes:
"There's been many great songs which have had really appalling lyrics, but there have been no great songs which have had appalling music."
Rhythm of the Heat is as good as anything he ever did. Superb. I don't like his stuff after 1986, except for soundtracks, but the quality of his early work has earned him an exalted place. He is a genius, even if his muse has faded somewhat. I wish he would live forever.
'There is no Fairlight on the record'- No Jacket Required (sleeve notes), Phil Collins (1985).
Awesome piece of music-history. Thank you for finding, uploading, and sharing :)
For some reason, that crazy laugh he does at 2.33 has had a profound effect on me! It just comes out of nowhere. It sort of sums up Gabriel. He's calm, calm, calm and then mental! The animal within. Hahaha
...its January 2021 and I'm watching Peter Gabriel from 1982 trying to smash a Tv in a scrap yard....god bless the internet....I was 3 at the time.
I saw Peter Gabriel at the Music Hall in Houston in 1982. What an absolutely amazing experience. The acoustics in that place were like being in a studio and with a 2,200 seat capacity it was an intimate experience the likes of which I’ve never had since. I still remember everyone singing ‘Biko’ after the show on the way back to the parking garage. www.setlist.fm/setlist/peter-gabriel/1982/houston-music-hall-houston-tx-bd2ed8e.html
get an ensoniq mirage dude
It just so happens that the company he co-founded in the 80s to sell Fairlights and Emulators in the UK, became the European distributor for Ensoniq, starting with the Mirage. But that was five years after this was filmed.
Too bad the future music he talked about is absolutely crap
Ha floppy disks! Damn thing is bigger than my head..... Ahhhh love the 80's
This is awesome. Thanks for sharing!
The sound of the air in the pipe : EXCELLENT ! The sound of the glass being crashed : ABSOLUTELY AWESOME ! E-mu + Fairlight keyboards used to rock !!!
Pete was ahead of his time.
In its time this was truly groundbreaking stuff. My friends and I were obsessed with the 'Security' album that came out of this experimentation -- very exciting. Wow! Thanks.
Look at his smile when he first plays "Mummy" on the keyboard; he's like a little kid!
...whilst I think that he has focused his concentration on developing other world music, he inspires me and whenever I am looking for ideas I take out one of his albums. The last temptation of Christ, is truly the work of a genius. What do you think ?
I like that sampler better than the ones today.
interface is lightyears better than most of the stuff that came afterwards 😂
a scientist who liked to make music
about £15,000 (in the 80's)
Isn't sampling fun !?
Ok, I gotta ask, what song did he use the smashing sounds? I wanna hear that bad.
Nick Cave was doing something really special around this time.
Awesome footage.
PG is a great musician and forward thinker.
Respect PG!
I owned a Fairlight IIx (ex Alan Parsons') in the 1980s and a Series III until 2005 and the Page R/RS sequence page was just far better for basic composition and base structure than any DAW I've used since. With the Series III you could programe a piece of music so quickly with just inputting letters and bar numbers. The stock samples were also beautifully crafted and dynamic.
Who counts to four before breaking stuff?
And we'll look back at the music of 07 and say, "That sucks; let's hear something from 82."
Already happening... This decade had poor music, more and more people are looking back at the 80s stuff 👍
Think about all of the cutting edge stuff we have today that we'll be laughing at 30 years from now.
Fairlight rules.
You can GET one! The price of a Fairlight these days is < $1000.
or a smart phone
Live Faust, die Jung.
watched this at the time and got into PG from there pg4 was awesome and well ahead of its time,kate bush got a fairlight shortly after for the dreaming album another awesome albulm of the 80s.............
If you can only have one Kate Bush album it should be "The Dreaming". Her masterpiece IMO.
Those things cost more than an average house back then.
You can probably do the same on your phone now.
Uh..sorry dozer, I still happen to get a lot out of Cupid & Psyche '85. So deny me my pleasure? It doesn't sound like much of anything else that came out during the same period, exception: it was mixed on the same SSL boards prevalent at the time. Gartside's breathy (and heterosexual) lyrics were quite different than something ABC would have put out. Human League were much more rough around the edges. Hell, I'm not going to list every 80's band. Who knows what you had been listening to.
...there is nothing 'contrived' about 'World Music.... the West making a concerted effort to show appreciation to traditional and new developments from music from around the world. Gabriel has pioneered Western multi cultural appreciation - whilst Collins has merely exploited it. Hence the reason, why Mr Collins is in tax exile in Switzerland ( great British bloke !!!) and has been sued by virtually all of the jazz musicians who worked tirelessly for him over the last 10 yrs.
PG's soundtrack for the Last Temptation of Christ is brilliant and the style has shown up on other soundtracks and songs... sorry no reference ;)
The dense production on the Security release and the lack of cymbals through out the songs did provide a specific feel that has been replicated.
I can't comment much on today's pop music... there's none that I really find interesting enough to want to listen too. Though I do hear shades of PG in Radiohead... and bands of this caliber.
I thought UP was a big of dog as well. I wanted lots more and didn't think it was worthy of his previous catalog.
PG's affect on music I believe is more related to his abilities to be inventive as we see here with his sampling. Also his production techniques have be copied and many are still used today, pumping an entire mix with your compressor, the gated reverb (yes flogged to death and not heard much now - thx)
thanks a lot, very interesting video of Peter. :-)
take care.
It's easy in 2007 to look back at 1982 and poke fun... we'll all do the same to hair styles clothing and dance in 2027 when we look back at today.
To minimize the impact of Peter Gabriels solo work and his influence on both popular music composition as well as experimental music is short sighted and niave.
Genesis is a rock group. Scritti was, and IS, a array of things. People stick to what they feel safe with. No offence to them, but i'd go for Scritti first. I'd imagine "nobody" in the "electronica" and "darkwave" Scene talks about them, The two genres a rittled with cookie cutter groups and sounds.
Gabriel is a buttock? How do you know this?
I agree that Genesis without Peter is just worthless pop, but even the worst Phil Collins-fronted Genesis music is more memorable that Scritti. Even in the electronica and darkwave scenes nobody talks about them. It's either Depeche or Gabriel.
Scritti Polliti are another lame 80's band forgotten in the ash heap of that period. They never got beyond sounding just like every other cookie cutter synth act from that period.
Gabriel, by contrast, has continued to pave the way and influence others to do the same.
OH SHIT! THE BEGGINING OF "SAMPLING" SOUNDS
An "array of things". Well, let's say that this is so.
None of those things are something that could have ever overshadowed the grounds breaking work Gabriel did in pop music at the time of this video. What Scritti did then was poop.
Interesting, saw Gabriel right after PG4 was released and he was quite powerful/psychotic/interesting. Thomas Dolby also did a lot with the fairlight.
ok now that its dirt cheap to go out sample real things around, you need to go do it. these people were all ahead of their time. listen to what he got out of blowing air into a pipe. priceless original.
3:33 ...and turn on English subtitles.
+surripere ( '~')
Of course, when you bought a Fairlight chances you had no more of it.
Pierre Ripplinger
Haha, nice :)
Pierre Ripplinger
...and you probably had to buy another one and possibly pay for damage clean-up when the thing inevitable caught fire (you may be aware that that was actually a real thing).
surripere ( '~') Haha no, I never heard of any synth that caught fire. Defective or underperforming power supplies? "Crap, my 100,000 bucks synth is smoking".
That was great,i never seen this before,thanks for posting
I wonder if Peter Gabriel got
Kate Bush into the Fairlight.
@pacific707
No.
"Cupid and Psyche" is just gay friendly party music that sounds dated, like so much of the other music of the period which it's indistinguishable from.
Anyone who doesnt want to miss the sound, whilst hitting "sample" late enough to record the whole smash before the thing runs out of memory i guess??
oh mate, it was just gonna break into that dope massive attack tune!
shit wat was that dude playing at on stage!!!!!!!!! freak
The entire Fairlight Library is now available as donation ware for Kontakt 4. 30 disks + extras. Really worth checking out if you got the urge to produce older tracks.
Mi dichiaro sconfitto. Non seguiranno altre repliche. Concertista ed insegnante a 13 anni? Io per pubblicare il primo vinile ho dovuto aspettare i 16: faccio musica (composizione, arrangiamento, basso fretless, chitarra, voce, tastiere, programmazione, fonico di studio) da 30 anni... Se questo è il rispetto che hai per artisti come Gabriel ed lo insegni pure ai tuoi allievi forse era meglio se ti davi alla pesca sportiva. E se suoni come scrivi... Tanti auguri per la tua professione.
How has music technology changed. All the fairlight technology exists now in one single app in a lap top or an ipad.
He is a genius.
This my folks is how you make a hit song LOL
Incorrect it *is* Solsbury Hill -it's near Batheaston in Somerset. Salisbury is in Wiltshire -google the song title.
Sorry - I suppose that's more of an american dish - the Salisbury Steak, that is.....
And all that toxic material coming out of that TV tube. PG's gone Heavy Metal deep inside, possibly.
Shouldn't that be two of ...? Or do you mean when you put them both together? :D
Wow. Guess I'll have to put old Peter Gabriel onto the list. Thought he was just another 80s pop act, but this video clearly shows he's a fucking music freak. Thanks a lot for uploading this gem!
80s? He was on his third or fourth career by then. And already a musical genius performing for 20 years. You need to read up a little. In the late 60s and 70s he was in Genesis. One of the most pioneering and experimental bands all the way up into the 90s. Then he had his own solo career from the mid 70s to the 80s that was Filled with world music and lots of avant-garde synthesizers. He’s composed for films and all this other Stuff and has had a completely diversified intensely artistic career. But I think most of the people I know know him as a true artist and visionary I’m not really from that song that was a big pop hit.
When will we call Pete, "SIR Peter Gabriel" ??????? I'm ready for it.
Son studio à Bath avant qu'il ne le vende à Peter Hammill
this is amazing!!!!
That's not correct. The Fairlight had a phantastic sequencer for its time!
at 3:30 we see he's wearing a casio calculator watch, the sign of a true geek :)
Was this recorded at The Farm?
@thelurker25 It's a 5 and 1/2 inch floppy disk. It used to be the only medium that we could keep our data on. Back in the early and dark ages of digital audio....
5 1/4 wasn’t it? I remember the little hole puncher to cut a square piece out of each corner so the sides wouldn’t be write protected
i heard that when it first came out it cost £26,000 to buy
Good Lord. It's the sound of a swan.
Great interview!
holy shit, look at the size of that floppy disc!
They were cool, but beyond outdated these days.
Hello Vasiliki666 -- I agree with you about Peter Gabriel. He's absolutely brilliant. I love his innovative approach to music. I like artists that are bold and unique. Peace2U, Kim
Such a long time ago!
That floppy disk tho
That's what she said....
I truly doubt that the Fairlight's "demise" can be attributed to a Korg M1, (sold millions, but a flash in the pan - never used anymore, even in Legacy edition) and the Roland JV1080. The Roland JV1080 is indeed a workhorse in the music studio but doesn't come close to the capabilities of the Fairlight CMI! Two completely different beasts!!!!! Don't get me wrong, I love my 1080, but please, it sounds awful to compare it to an 80's vintage Fairlight....they're totally different!
Perhaps it was a big old 8". I'm going to have to watch this again. You should see the optical disks they used for the Synclavier. They looked just like a Laserdisc (remember them? I still have some Laserdiscs and a very good LD player). I also noticed that they used cartridges in the Fairlight, as well as floppies.
I was incredibly fortunate, as a teenager on the late 80s, to work at Real World Studios....Whilst I took a different path; the words and wisdom of PG stay with me....Especially in my own music....
@larkydozer Complete Bull! Cupid & Psyche '85 is just as incredible to listen to today, as are all of Peter's records, including Security. Scritti set the standard for high-tech New York-based studio-sequenced wizardry. Dave Gamson is a synthesizer god - as well as a hell of a musician, arranger and songwriter.
1:34 thats a pet shop boys beat
If you can create a drum pattern that is truly unique and interesting,why is it wrong for someone like a Phil Collins to use various drum machines to make that pattern come alive?!Oh for a Peter-Phil album,just them, all percussion,acoustic and electric!!!
Genesis was better quitting.
yes they are 8 Inch floppys
You're probably quite correct! I can't imagine we'll be wanting more 2007 pop or ass shaking video's
I can't believe I spelled naive wrong :)
I agree that it's fabulous to see him talk about the process that went into a song like this. I'm torn, though, whether I like the English version or his German version better; guess I'll just have to like them both the same :-)
i remember doing the same kinda thing -- shoe squeaks, water sounds, spinning coins, et al -- with my Ensoniq EPS back in 1990 or so... GOOD TIMES !!!!
..and seeing Pete do it now, in hindsight, really brings it all back for me! (and others too, i imagine..) Guess it's time to go power up my keyboards and remember why i started doing this to begin with!! ^_^
i wish he'd kept what he did on 4.00, the kind of yell. it was amazing
and part of the start is cut on the finished song disapointingly. i still love the song, though , it is amazing
PURE CREATIVITY !! the first artist who ever use the failight the second was jean michel jarre ( juste because it was deliver to peter gabriel first !). now if lisa gerrard was in the video then you would have a kind of dead can dance type of music !
thank for this video !
A visionary!
Sledgehammer
Blss you for posting this. This is liquid gold for a PG nut like me! Your karma has definately leaned towards the good side.
I wish I had my own personal technician in my studio!
i'd still be superhappy having a fairlight and that screen. the sampling seemed very fast. i dont get why theres not more vstsamplers that actually sample - not just load samples.
I love Peter's music. Was this at his recordings for the fourth album? And i wonder why his eyes always looked like he was a depressive insomniac back then.
I prefer the german guttural rather than some African singing.....Indian guttural sounds are ok too